Versions and Variants of Sidney’s “Astrophil and Stella”
In comparing the 1591 and 1598 versions of Sir Phillip Sidney’s “Astrophil and Stella”, it is said that the 1598 publication proves to be the most authoritative version. The 1598 edition, published along with other works in Sidney’s Arcadia, contains many spelling, grammar, and punctuation corrections; a complete restructuring and organization of the sonnet sequence; as well as the replacement of lines that had been missing or miscopied in the original 1591 edition. The differences between the two editions are especially prevalent in the first and sixth sonnets of the poem. While these corrections are seemingly subtle, they prove to be important in supporting the framework of the Petrarchan
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Whereas the 1591 version’s sonnet lines appear to be more grouped together, the 1598 version separates the octave into two groups and the sestet into two groups as well, helping to support and enhance the Petrarchan style. This support allows for the turn at the sestet, such as the one in the first sonnet: “But words came halting…” (9), to be put on display. Along with many spelling and punctuation corrections, the first sonnet contains a significant change within its first line. The 1591 version of the line “and fayne my love in verse to show”(1) is rearranged to “…and faine in verse my love to show” (1) in the 1598 edition. This rearrangement improves the flow of the line but also subtly adjusts it’s meaning. Whereas the 1591 edition states that he wants his love to show in his poetry, the 1598 edition changes by stating he wants his poetry to show his love. Another correction occurs in this sonnet at the beginning of the sestet, replacing “out” (9) in the 1591 version with “forth” (9) in the 1598 version. As the speaker is explaining his struggle to find the words to describe his pain, the use of “out” suggests that it is the speaker who is pulling at the words whereas “forth” puts the onus on the words, that it is the words which are trying to reach him. This reiterates the speaker’s efforts to connect poetry with nature, …show more content…
For example, the line “Of living deathes, deere wounds, faire, stormes, and friesing fyres” (4) contains a few commas that break up one of the oxymorons. These commas are removed in the 1598 version, changing it to: “Of living deathes, dear woundes, faire storms & freesing fires” (4). The correction demonstrates the importance of comma placement and how an incorrect comma can throw off the flow of a line or even the entire sonnet. Therefore, the comma corrections allow the series oxymorons to remain separated, as was probably the intent in the first edition. A major difference also within this sonnet occurs at the tenth line, where in the 1591 version a part of the line appears to be missing: “Whiles teares poure out his inke, and sighs breathe” (10). This missing part, where Sidney is discussing the conventions of other poets, is replaced in the 1598 version so that the line becomes “While teares powre out his inke, & sighs breathe out his words” (10). These missing words affect the style, flow, and the speaker’s statement as he is stating that he can better express his emotions of love through his voice rather than by borrowing overused poetic
In the book Luna, it focuses on Regan, who is a sixteen year old girl who deals with the journey of her older brother Liam. It is a book that casts a story on how Regan tries to accept that her brother sees himself as a transgender, named Luna. Throughout the story Regan is a burdened to keep the secret life of her sibling Liam, as he acts and dresses as a boy at day light and his true self- Luna at night. In the story there are lots of complications dealing with their relationship as the story progresses. The bond between them seem strong in the begging of the book and then steers into tough times, but in the end they both love, and respect each other.
Billy Collins, the writer of Sonnet, uses a comical effect to make fun of old sonnets, how they were written and the older poets, through the use of literary terms. The fact that Billy Collins speaks with a mockery tone of Petrarch, causes readers to understand how he feels about the old sonnet writers and their work. Collins' tone expresses a negative look on old sonnets, but also looks on the bright side of them. He addresses the issue of how older sonnets were written by old poets in order to explain to readers why he wants to change the face of sonnets today. He is trying to get this main point across to readers so that they understand why he wants this change.
Compare William Shakespeare’s Sonnets 12 and 73 William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote a group of 154 sonnets between 1592 and 1597, which were compiled and published under the title 'Shakespeare's Sonnets' in 1609. The 154 poems are divided into two groups, a larger set, consisting of sonnets 1-126 which are addressed by the poet to a dear young man, the smaller group of sonnets 127-154 address another persona, a 'dark lady'. The larger set of sonnets display a deliberate sequence, a sonnet cycle akin to that used a decade earlier by the English poet Phillip Sidney (1554-1586) in 'Astrophel and Stella'. The themes of love and infidelity are dominant in both sets of poems, in the larger grouping; these themes are interwoven with symbols of beauty, immortality, and the ravages of time. Lyrical speculations of poetry's power to maintain bonds of love and to revere the beloved can also be found in the larger collection of sonnets.
Wilson, John Dover. An Introduction to the Sonnets of Shakespeare: For the Use of Historians
EBB expertly manipulates the Petrarchan sonnet form, commonly known as a way to objectify women, in order to voice her yearning for true love. The Victorian era was witness to rapid industrialization, and with this came a growing superficiality for dowry’s and status. EBB accentuates her own context by so strongly rejecting its newly materialistic conventions, especially towards love. EBB laments ‘How Theocritus had sung’ (Sonnet I), her Greco allusion successfully communicating her longing to return to the values of substantial love during the romantic era. This highlights her own context as it illustrates a distain for its current values of superficiality. Furthermore, EBB conveys her contempt of having to ‘fashion into speech’ (Sonnet XIII) her love, this mocking of courting is highly explored as she continues to ridicule those who love for ‘Her smile, her look’ (Sonnet XIV), thus highlighting her context to the audience. In addition, during Sonnet XXXII, EBB powerfully voices how ‘Quick loving hearts…may quickly loathe’; her expert employment of anadiplosis critiques how superficiality in love may cause it to fade away. A motif of love fading away due to shallowness throughout her sonnet progression significantly highlights the values of love at the time and therefore
...e speaker admits she is worried and confused when she says, “The sonnet is the story of a woman’s struggle to make choices regarding love.” (14) Her mind is disturbed from the trials of love.
These create a sort of volta effect, emphasized by the strong, determined word ‘No’, and followed by a caesura to create a pause, emphasizing the new change. This creates a lean towards the Petrarchan sonnet form, in which the volta lies at the beginning of the sestet, rather at the heroic couplet of the Shakespearean sonnet. This is made clearer as the first two quatrains deal with the subject of immortality by examining the star and how it watches down on Earth, while the final quatrain and couplet, or the sestet, which now has the rhyme scheme of EFGFHH, deal with how Keats instead wishes to be with his lover instead. The effect of the merged sonnet forms creates a free and lively mood which feels unconstrained and more natural. It also makes the sestet livelier, not only due to extra rhyme which intensifies the emotion that Keats expresses, but also by allowing more room to contrast with the first two quatrains.... ...
Sonnet 130 is Shakespeare’s harsh yet realistic tribute to his quite ordinary mistress. Conventional love poetry of his time would employ Petrarchan imagery and entertain notions of courtly love. Francis Petrarch, often noted for his perfection of the sonnet form, developed a number of techniques for describing love’s pleasures and torments as well as the beauty of the beloved. While Shakespeare adheres to this form, he undermines it as well. Through the use of deliberately subversive wordplay and exaggerated similes, ambiguous concepts, and adherence to the sonnet form, Shakespeare creates a parody of the traditional love sonnet. Although, in the end, Shakespeare embraces the overall Petrarchan theme of total and consuming love.
Petrarch's "Sonnet 292" is composed in the Italian 14-line poem structure comprising an eight-line octave. It also contains six-line sestet. The fundamental characteristics for the Petrarchan poem structure is the two-part structure. To attain this, the author divides the eight-line octave into two four-line stanzas and the sestet into two three-line stanzas. This structure takes into account improvement of two parts of the subject, expanding the point of view of the piece. While some rhyme plot remains after the interpretation of the lyric from Italian, it does not provide the correct representation of the definitive complexity of Petrarch's work that was indispensable to putting across his mess...
In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.
In Francis Petrarch’s sonnets, he describes his unrequited love for a woman, Laura, who has passed away. The way in which Petrarch describes his love for Laura is obsessive and it appears as if he has elevated Laura after her death, which is especially evident in sonnet 126. After this sonnet, Petrarch reflects on his love for Laura by telling the reader about how all his reason is gone and his only purpose in the world is to let others know about the woman whom he loved.
The similar rhyme schemes of the two sonnets allow for clear organization of the speaker’s ideas and support these ideas through comparison and connection. Both poems use or essentially use a Shakespearean rhyme scheme to provide rhythm for their sonnets, while adding extra emphasis to the topics presented throughout them. Owen uses the rhyme scheme in a way to stress his description of the enraged scene of the battlefield, and to further the dehumanization of the soldiers at war. The simile used to compare the soldiers to “cattle”, is connected to the fast “rattle” of the rifles, furthering the image of the inhumane way the soldiers we killed (1,3). Owen alters the Shakespearean rhyme scheme in the eleventh line making a switch to create two lines in a row that rhyme, rather than alternating. This allows for a smooth transition in his description of the ritual that marks a soldier’s death. To draw attention to the tears “in their eyes”, which could be in the eyes of the dead soldier or of their brothers at war, they are connected to the “glimmer of good-byes”, to represent the quick mourning for the soldiers (10-11). The connection here is furthered with the use of enjambment at the end of the tenth line; with no grammatical separation, the thought smoothly transitions from one line to the other. On the other hand, Keats uses the exact Shakespearean rhyme
Therefore, because William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” share the idea that love is sincere and eternal, they can be looked upon as similar in theme. However, although similar in theme, Shakespeare’s intent is portraying the true everlasting beauty of his love, which is already achieved, whereas Spenser concentrates more on trying to entice his desired love, remaining optimistic throughout the entire poem.
Sonnet XX, by William Shakespeare, is fraught with wordplay and ambiguity. Shakespeare misleads the audience with variety of puns and double entendres. Due to the large amount of criticism this poem produces, it is necessary to analyze this piece twice: once from the perspective of a female attraction, and once from the perspective of a male attraction. Only when both sides of this equilibrium are examined can true insight be achieved. It is my goal to present the same mystifying experiences as Shakespeare: the initial debate as to whether this fair youth is male or female, and the ultimate debate as to whether our narrator’s intense fondness for this youth is the result of platonic love or carnal lust. After all, Shakespeare obviously created this uncertainty for a reason. The question that remains is “Why?”
Biespiel,David. “Sonnet14.” Masterplots II. Philip K. Jason. Vol. 7. Pasadena: Salem Press, 2002. 3521-3522. Print.